Sunday, August 14, 2011

My Prized Goh Keng Swee Orchid Series Banknotes Collection

After gaining independence on 9th August 1965, the Singapore Government decided to issue her own banknotes and the Orchid series is the first amongst the Bird, Ship, I.T. and Portrait ones.

The series signed by the late Dr Goh Keng Swee was issued on 19th January 1970 and only in $1, $5, $10, $50, $100 and $1000 denominations.Only a small quantity of his signed banknotes were issued,thus making the Orchid series banknotes signed by him as the most sought after and valuable among all Singapore issued banknotes.

An UNC foxing $1 note with Unique serial numbers.﻿

Almost a consecutive pair of $1 note with a small error smudge on one of the Orchids.

Can you spot it? Refer to my earlier blog for details.

The MOST sought after and very valuable of all the Dr Goh Keng Swee signed Orchid series banknote, may even be for the overall series of banknotes issued by the Singapore Government.......................the infamous $5.00 denomination:

Can you notice that all three signatures vary in the degree of thickness............you would probably have to enlarge the picture to view. Can these be considered as minor varieties? Any "gurus" wish to comment?

An uneventful consecutive $10.00, bought in the early 1980s for slightly higher than the face value of the pair........................sob! sob! should have bought more..............

At the last local auction, a single UNC $50 piece was sold for S$480 excluding buyer's premium and taxes.

Consecutive serial numbers printed withYellow banknote paper or is it even foxing?

Understand that the Dr Goh Keng Swee $100 is the second most sought after.

Another BOO BOO by the authorities, catalogers, etc?............ apparently it was published that the Goh Keng Swee $1000 banknotes bears his signature(of course! this is obvious.............or you will have had an error note) and his SEAL:

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I have yet to see a GKS $1000 or a picture of it with his signature and seal .................anyone in possession of such a note or comments?

I am a banknote dealer and collector in the USA. I have visited many banknote blogs but none as good as yours. you really go into the details of each piece of currency. I love it! Keep up the good work. Nicky Nice (NickyNice.com)